Galneda's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Grimace Tries the Shake!]

You got a great style established so far, with the yellow backgrounds, crisp lip-syncing and decent composition.

A bit of a subversion of expectations on the theme of "The Grimace Shake" meme, and that probably contributed to the overall score. Typically, if people are surfing the tags of Grimace Shake, they could probably expect that horror-themed twist that the shake itself is killing or possessing or transforming people supernaturally.

But here he's just kinda like "Fuck you kid" and that's the punchline. It's just kinda like a whatever gag, like "He's rude, he hates kids, what a dick" and the people that were after that horror stinger or violent theme may have felt misled, and voted averagely. Because all of this isn't bad, and it's evident that there was effort and thought carried out to the short (even if it was only made in a few hours) but it feels anticlimactic and therefore kinda forgettable.

Lip-syncing drops off the face of the earth after the kid's offended, and it just switches between two stills, which indicates that you might've been in a hurry to knock this out real quick before you didn't care about the short anymore (believe me, I get it). So, another contributing factor to the average score could've also been because the ending half didn't have the same polish or detail that it started with. Something else to look out for moving forward as you make your next animation.

RedTariq responds:

Thanks for the tip! This isn't really what I meant when I asked why my stuff got rated so low, considering this animation was more making fun of the tired "someone drinks the Grimace Shake and dies" trend with the anti climatic joke being intentional since it's out of nowhere and I just rushed it so my YouTube channel wouldn't die out so fast.

This isn't my best work, and I understand people don't like my other videos that much either since they're pretty flawed. But I was surprised the results were so mixed because on a website like YouTube, there isn't really a ratings system anymore, so a lot of feedback was overly positive. So for a platform like Newgrounds which basically is all about animation, the mixed reception surprised me.

I also rushed this one because I'm already working on two much more polished animations, taking feedback from others who felt the meme sound effects were too excessive or that the animations were not cohesive enough and applying it there. One is almost a full minute (with actual backgrounds and full animation) and the other is for a part of a collab that is due in September (which is about 20 seconds).

I promise you these videos won't feel as corporate or rushed since I now have more experience with how to make animated comedy work more than just "funny noises and goofy faces!"

[The Siren - Animatic]

She's got a really cute design! I make animatics for a living and one thing I could suggest is having a shot-counter in the top left corner to make it a little more streamlined when you're getting notes. They could still use the time-stamp, sure, but that's just how I've always been taught how to do it- no real right-or-wrong there.

As they say, "as long as it reads" she and the fish look very polished, barely anything is rough about this, so I hope that's not consuming a lot of your time. If not, groovy, but if you're under a time-crunch, don't feel an aversion to get loose with it.

You're dealing with some shots that go back and forth between submerged and looking down on the surface of the water from above- there could be a color choice or visual that could indicate that just a little more clearly.

Anything else that didn't read to the eye immediately, clarified itself later, so I can't gripe on any individual detail- the whole short was fun, everything read well, I'm confident this is gonna look great in final.

Keenobishinobi responds:

Thank you so much for the feedback :)

[I do animation on YouTube, go subscribe if you want, this one is my latest work 😊👍]

I think you accidentally put all of the information that was supposed to be in the author description in the title. Which is too long to read, and thus, leaves this animation nameless.

Looking at your profile, you only have one other submission, and it's the same art you use for your avatar and header. It doesn't stylistically match the skill level of what's shown in this animation. So it got me suspicious if this is even yours.

I found a YouTube channel here

https://www.youtube.com/@t-artzstudios5819

And this same submission was uploaded there 11 days ago. Odd that you opted to lead your Newgrounds account with that particular submission and not your newest or your oldest. Could you explain why?

TartzX responds:

I’m sorry I’m really new to newgrounds, I just want to clarify that this is my work, I post animations on YouTube and some art on other platforms, again I’m very new to this so I apologize,
I hope I made some things clear

[El Dorado Reanimated collab entry]

lmao this came out great!

[STARBARIANS - Episode 3.5]

Yo, that comic looks excellent! Very Heavy Metal! Can't wait for future installments!

[Kindred Heavens Trailer]

Spring 2023? But it's already summer!

Either way, great job! Looking forward to your continued success!

Credits for the music used in the trailer?

By the way, if you ever need a voice actor, I'd be down to help! Let's collab!

[2 | Number Lore]

You're second to none!

Go, team, go!

[EARWAX | MELVINS MACABRE]

Fucking amazing job. Standalone quality on this one, the whole team should be proud of this gross-ass masterpiece.

Somebody send this to Junji Ito.

Swinging at every ball here, if you guys ever need another voice just to diversify roles, I would be thrilled to throwdown for the credit. I love horror, and I've always wanted to perform in a horror role with a ridiculous twist.

[This is just a random test animation!]

Probably the best thing I've yet to see that was made using FlipAClip

[Malcolm’s school 3]

This is still really hard to follow.

You got it right with the first shot - That's called an establishing shot. We see the outside of a building, so we (the audience) know that whatever happens next is probably inside that building.

Second shot is of the door at the foot of that building. This is great! This establishes direction, and we're about to go into the building.

Third shot is some blue kid with his singular foot on the desk. I don't know who this is, but at this point I'm assuming we're going to find out.

The next shot is...a kid frozen in an ice cube? But the chairs and desks are all in the same orientation, so I can assume we're being introduced to a cast of characters in a classroom.

The next shot is a kid asleep, also with his foot propped up on the desk.

And then we get Malcolm. I recognize him from the last cartoon of yours I reviewed.

Then a teacher is pointing at a chalkboard. Cuts back to Malcolm, signifying that he's paying attention. The teacher writes on the chalkboard, "Malcolm's School 3" ...and that match-cuts to a black background of the same message in white lettering.

Oh! This was the show's intro sequence! Okay. Hope we get to learn about our cast of characters.

We're back to Malcolm in class. I'm still following this so far.

The teacher is smiling really big at Malcolm, for some reason. Weird, but let's see where this goes.

Cuts back to Malcolm, who hasn't moved.

This next shot is where it loses me a little. There would appear to be a tiny woman in gigantic high-heels on the floor, based on the two mounds at the bottom of the screen. I'm guessing those are shoes? The only way this would make sense is if this were an action figure or something?

And then it just cuts to an inventory screen, and the woman is the only thing in it.

-Was the woman an action figure? That wasn't made clear in her design.
-Were those Malcolm's feet / was she beneath Malcolm? I couldn't tell, this was the first time we ever saw the floor.
-Did Malcolm pick her up? That wasn't clear either; cutting to the inventory screen could just mean he has an identical doll in his inventory. We need to see him picking her up.

It cuts to a closer shot of Malcolm, and then an extreme closeup of his arm throwing the doll away. The teacher grabs it.

Now with the teacher distracted or occupied with the doll, (which is apparently what he was smiling really big for a few shots back), Malcolm sneaks away.

Cut to Malcolm at the door to his classroom. Where are the other kids in this? One of them is a asleep and the other one's frozen, but the blue kid has with his one foot on his desk is still awake. Is it just these people in the classroom? We don't know, because we haven't seen a wider shot of who all is in here. Or WHAT all is in here.

It cuts to an exit sign with a laser grid over it. The last shot that we saw had Malcolm at the door to the classroom. Was this after he exited and now we're in the hallway? We never saw Malcolm leave the room, so the audience might think he's still in his classroom, and this EXIT door is within the classroom walls.

If you use wider shots to paint a scene, it tells your audience where everything is in relation to your character. It informs us all what the environment looks like.

It cuts to a closeup of Malcolm, and I'm still unsure where he is. If he's in the classroom or the hallway because there's no context. If he's in the hall, there could be lockers or a water fountain or something you would see in a hallway.

Then it cuts to a spooky kid...a ninja? In an air vent? It's kind of hard to tell what's going on anymore, because of the lack of details and animation.

The last time I left a review like this, you said you had a difficult time understanding what I was saying.

If it because of your age or a language barrier or something else? I'm trying to help your animations improve.

kaithomasisthegoat responds:

I’m sorry if you didn’t like it